This application claims the priority benefit of Taiwan application serial no. 90125885, filed on Oct. 19, 2001.
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates in general to a mass production encapsulation method, and more particularly, to a mass production encapsulation equipment and method for organic light emitting display devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
After the American company Kodak disclosed the organic light emitting device (Appl. Phys. Lett., Vol. 15, p.914 (1987)), University of Cambridge in England successfully applied polymer materials to light emitting devices in 1990 (Nature, Vol. 347, p.539 (1990)). The foundation for practical application of light emitting devices was thus established. This has attracted great attention from industrial, academic and official institutions in various countries, and subsequent research and development has commenced.
Having the features of self-luminescence, wide view angles (160xc2x0), high response speed, low driving voltage and full color, the light emitting devices are the flat panel display technique for the next century. Currently, the organic light emitting device has been developed practically to the application stage, and is believed to be the color flat panel for the next generation. The high-level product applications of such flat panel light emitting devices includes full color flat panel display devices, such as small display panels, outdoor display panels, computer and television screens. As the technique has only lately been developed, only the Japanese company Pioneer has a smaller product on the current market. It indicates that some problems have to be overcome for commercializing the light emitting display, especially for mass production.
The current development of the technique related to the organic light emitting devices is focused on the device and material structure. Development of the encapsulation process technique, especially the process using a cover plate to encapsulating the light emitting display panel, can hardly be found, not even to mention mass production thereof. Prior art that has discussed the encapsulation technique of organic light emitting devices is found as follows.
1. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,882,761 filed by Pioneer, an encapsulation method for an organic light emitting device is disclosed. A moisture absorbing material is applied in this encapsulation method. However, nothing related to mass production has been suggested.
2. U.S. Pat. No. 6,049,167 filed by TDK also disclosed a packaging method of an organic light emitting device. The moisture material is not included, however, and the equipment of the packaging process disclosed in this patent is applicable for batch equipment only. It is suitable for lab operation, but is not suitable for mass process.
3. The encapsulation method disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,958,778 filed by IBM includes using multiple protection films and glass or metal for device packaging. It is very difficult to mass produce the multiple films, so that the method provided by IBM is again not suitable for mass production.
4. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,962,962 filed by Idemitsu, the encapsulation method of organic light emitting device uses inert liquid to fabricate the device. Further, moisture absorption material is added in the inert liquid. However, all the materials have to be dehydrated to obtain a proper effect, so that the technique disclosed by Idemitsu is not suitable for mass production.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,990,615, improved on the encapsulation method for organic light emitting devices disclosed by Pioneer and Idemitsu by electroplating a protection layer. However, the disadvantage of the methods disclosed by Pioneer and Idemitsu still exists.
According to the above, the conventional encapsulation method does not suggest a method for mass production, or the technique of the conventional packaging method cannot achieve mass production.
The present invention provides mass production encapsulation equipment and method. The encapsulation equipment comprises a transporting system, a panel supply system, multiple dispensing systems, a turning/storage system, a cover plate supply system, a lamination/ultra-violet radiation system and an ultra-violet radiation system. The above systems are linked by the transporting system. A panel supplied from the panel supply system is transported into the turning/storage system to make a 180xc2x0 turn. The flipped panel is transported into each dispensing system alternately for resin coating thereon. The panel that has been coated with resin through each dispensing system is then transported into the turning/storage system again. The turning/storage system can store at least one panel to provide the buffer function for mass production equipment. Therefore, process waiting for problems caused by inconsistent process speeds for various stages can be resolved. The panel is transported from the turning/storage system to the lamination/ultra-violet radiation system, and the first stage exposure is performed while the panel is aligning laminated with a cover plate supplied by the cover plate supply system. The cover plate can optionally be also coated with the resin. The second stage exposure is then performed on the panel in the ultra-violet radiation system.
The present invention applies multiple dispensing systems to coat resin simultaneously, so that the dispensing speed is enhanced. The distance between the dispensing syringe and the panel is measured by laser. Therefore, the distance between the dispensing syringe and the coating object can be precisely controlled.
Further, the resin quantity to be coated can also kept constant.
By performing two-stage exposure, the problems of overheating the ultra-violet light exposure equipment and extending exposure time can be resolved, and the yield for ultra-violet exposure is increased.
In addition, in the above mass production encapsulation equipment and method of the light emitting display device, the allocation of the panel supply system and the cover plate supply system can be exchanged to coat resin on the cover plate for mass production encapsulation.
Both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the invention, as claimed.